Shade Tree Howler Monkey Scale

By Larry Soo

A long time ago, Gord Pritchard and I were talking about how I used the term, "shade tree howler monkey" when referring to your average home mechanic. He proposed a rating scale to describe the difficulty of various backyard mechanic jobs. Soon after, the Shade Tree Howler Monkey scale was born:

	Easy.
	Moderately difficult.
	Pushing the limits of a stock howler monkey; opposable thumbs only get you so far.
	Requires the ability to communicate abstract ideas to other howler monkeys. The job should only be attempted by a professional orangutan.

I think what surprised us more than anything was how quickly the scale was adopted and spread throughout the Internet community. The next time you see the STHM scale posted on someone's webpage, just remember that it was made in Canada.